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Although the apparently unusual verbification is not hard to understand, I am having trouble finding a translation suitable to the context. (It´s Dvorák, by the way, and apologies for not managing the "hacek" on the "r".)

Explanation:Well, I think there's something to be said for sticking to what the original actually says, and the trouble with "beautified" is that its connotations are too positive. Obviously, the guy did not like having the slow played too fast and the fast too slow.

"Prettified", for us native speakers, has a definite negative connotation.

Other possibilities:
tarted up (aber mit Vorsicht!)
prettied up
toned down

Well that was certainly a rich set of offerings – thank you all very much!

It was all so much, I left the decision to Cécile, my German musical partner, who does Korrektur with me on things like this. She liked “cosmeticised”, but eventually rejected it because the negative implication that needs to be there is not clear enough, and chose “prettified” (which had also been my provisional version). I don´t really see it as the literal translation, wouldn´t that be more the “behübscht”, with geschönt as “beautified”? But I certainly agree that “prettified” expresses best what the writer is saying.

We liked “toned down and prettied up”, but didn´t really think it was right in the end. “Tarted up” was good for a laugh, but not quite the author´s style. “Embellished” has a different sense in a musical context. I didn´t get the significance of the (free) Latin reference to war. “Touched up” also raised a laugh though.

Oh, and an extra four points to Richard for picking me up on the haèek haèek. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Explanation:Well, I think there's something to be said for sticking to what the original actually says, and the trouble with "beautified" is that its connotations are too positive. Obviously, the guy did not like having the slow played too fast and the fast too slow.

"Prettified", for us native speakers, has a definite negative connotation.

Other possibilities:
tarted up (aber mit Vorsicht!)
prettied up
toned down

Well that was certainly a rich set of offerings – thank you all very much!

It was all so much, I left the decision to Cécile, my German musical partner, who does Korrektur with me on things like this. She liked “cosmeticised”, but eventually rejected it because the negative implication that needs to be there is not clear enough, and chose “prettified” (which had also been my provisional version). I don´t really see it as the literal translation, wouldn´t that be more the “behübscht”, with geschönt as “beautified”? But I certainly agree that “prettified” expresses best what the writer is saying.

We liked “toned down and prettied up”, but didn´t really think it was right in the end. “Tarted up” was good for a laugh, but not quite the author´s style. “Embellished” has a different sense in a musical context. I didn´t get the significance of the (free) Latin reference to war. “Touched up” also raised a laugh though.

Oh, and an extra four points to Richard for picking me up on the haèek haèek.

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